Thursday, 12 November 2009

--As Afghanistan slowly opened up to the world in the 1960s and 1970s, the country was exposed to Western music, and a fusion of sorts seems to have taken place as traditional Afghan music became influenced by outside musical styles.--The following song is by a certain Hasan Bismil. I unfortunately don't know anything about him, but "jaan bashai ailagi" is an absolute Afghan club-banger!-Hasan Bismil - Jaan Bashai Ailagi--Another great favourite of mine is Nasir Parwani's "Dard Dandan", which was apparently recorded at a wedding.-Nasir Parwani - Dard Dandan--

--I don't know much about Bakht Zamina, but she was clearly a fantastically beautiful and talented Afghan singer, as this video on YouTube illustrates:-

-Note that she never smiles, and that she always moves back - away from the microphone - when she isn't singing... Perhaps there were limits to what one could show (i.e. what women could do) even on Afghan Communist television? Also, I think that the way she rolls her eyeballs when saying "vai, vai, vai" is brilliant!-However, besides daring to "westernize" (i.e. appear on television without a veil, sing, &c., which no doubt made her many enemies in ultra-conservative Afghanistan), she apparently collaborated with the Afghan Communists, as this other video illustrates:--Here is the studio version, perhaps more explicitly pro-Communist:---A Chitrali friend in London once told me that she lived in constant fear of being made to pay for her songs, and that - one day - her inevitable destiny caught up with her...--